Last week, I scored. I scored big. I came across a nice copy of the revered Canon 8-64 T2.4 PL Super 16 zoom lens, for an amazing price, so I snapped it up. I’ve had my eye on this lens since I first started shooting with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, but when one does pop up for sale, the price was always out of my reach. Not only is it one of the smallest S16 zooms available, but it’s also one of the widest – maybe even the widest available. Shooting in tight spaces is no problem for this zoom, with 8mm affording an equivalent field of view that is just a hair wider than a 24mm on a full-frame DSLR.

Yours truly, left, glaring at Nico on the court in San Antonio.

My desire for the Canon 8-64 was cemented during the NBA Playoffs this year. I was covering all of the San Antonio games for The Sporting News/Omnisport, and before one of the games, the NBA TV Phantom shooter struck up a conversation with me when he noticed that I was shooting with my old Mk I Zeiss Super Speeds on the BMPCC. Being a 16mm shooter, he wanted to check out my rig. As it turned out, he had a Canon 8-64 on his Phantom, and we spent some time talking glass. That was the first time I’d seen the 8-64 in the wild, and I immediately recognized that it was the perfect size for the BMPCC rig. It rocketed to the top of my wish list, but it wasn’t until recently I found one for sale that was actually affordable.

On the set of Kevin Sloan’s latest short film, “I Love You More.”

I ordered the lens and a cheap PL adapter the same day (not ready to spend 800.00 on the Hotrod Cameras PL mount for the View Factor Contineo cage yet), and they both arrived on Friday. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the PL mount came with a set of shims, so I spent some time collimating the mount, MacGyver-style. The difference between “not good” & “good enough” was 0.03mm. I may revisit it later on if I can find some 0.01mm shims for the Hawk’s Factory mount.

Yours truly shooting with the BMPCC and a Zeiss Mk I 25mm T1.3 Super Speed during the NBA Playoffs in San Antonio.

Immediately after unpacking the lens and mounting it to the camera, I called my friend Nico and made him go with me to shoot some sunset clips. We went up to the roof of an abandoned high rise and rolled on the San Antonio skyline, with great results. The Canon 8-64 might just be my new favorite lens. It’s definitely the most “filmic” lens I’ve used on the BMPCC. Color and contrast are awesome, and it’s beautifully sharp, with a nice organic looking picture. Flare and bokeh (I still hate that word) are both wonderful, with lots of character. It’s a beautiful look, especially if you love film.

Director Kevin Sloan on the set of his latest short film.

The next day, I was to provide the camera package, DIT, & color services for director Kevin Sloan’s new short, “I Love You More.” I was very excited that the 8-64 had arrived before the weekend, as I would get to put it through its paces on set immediately. After looking at dailies, I’ve decided that it is indeed my new favorite lens. It yields the perfect look for me. Tack sharp, yet organically smooth, if that makes any sense. Coupled with the 12-bit raw color of the BMPCC, we have a winner.

Here is a quick test video I cobbled together to show off the characteristics of the lens, including breathing, bokeh, zoom, sharpness, color, contrast, etc. Unfortunately, the camera I was using suffered from the BMPCC “highlight blooming” problem, and it’s evident in some of the shots. I need to send it in for that…

On Monday, I ventured down to Padre Island and Corpus Christi, Texas, to shoot some b-roll for a documentary project I’m doing this summer. I also wanted to take the opportunity to test out a couple of cameras: the new Panasonic AJ-PX270 P2 AVC-Ultra small-body broadcast camera, and the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, configured with a Century Optics 1.32X B4-to-Super16 converter and a Canon HD 18X ENG zoom lens.

I’m more impressed with the PX270 every time I shoot with it. My last 1/3″ cam was the Panasonic HPX170, which was a great camera – for certain applications – but the PX270 is so much better, it’s usable in many more situations than the HPX170 was. To begin with, the picture is way better. The dynamic range and sharpness is greatly improved, as is the highlight roll-off, especially. Out of the box, the PX270 had a crappy image (over-sharp, gritty, and flat) because of the way the camera is set up from the factory, but after I spent a little time dialing in and customizing the picture by creating my own scene file, it became superb.

Shooting with the Panasonic AJ-PX270

The PX270 is the first small body camera in the Panasonic line that is AVC-Ultra equipped (AVC-Ultra is what Panasonic is calling its group of professional AVC codecs; there is no codec called AVC-Ultra). AVC-Ultra codecs include AVC-Intra 100 & 200 (upgradable option), AVC-Intra 50, & AVC-LongG 50/25/12. It also shoots in good old DVCProHD if you need it to. The PX270 also features many more professional menu options and picture/color tweaking capabilities than any previous small body Panasonic. I think it actually has the same menu structure and options as the new AJ-PX5000 2/3″ shoulder cam, which lists for about $25K, sans glass. The PX270 was intended to be used as a companion to the PX5000 if needed, and I can easily see how the quality could keep up with the big brother. The PX270 really is a broadcast-quality camera.

In addition to releasing DaVinci Resolve 11, Blackmagic Design has also released major firmware upgrades for all of their cinema camera models. The new firmware (v. 1.8) features an all-new code base for the cameras, as well as new user interface, compressed RAW DNG for the 4K production camera, greater performance at higher ISO levels, better focus peaking, and enhanced lens control, among other things. The update can be downloaded from Blackmagic Design’s support page, which has also had a nice redesign.

Here is the press release in full:

Fremont, CA – 24 June, 2014 – Blackmagic Design today announced the release of Blackmagic Camera Update 1.8 software which includes updated features for all Blackmagic Design cameras. Blackmagic Camera Update 1.8 is available now for download free of charge for all existing Blackmagic Camera customers from the Blackmagic Design support page on the website.

The new Blackmagic Camera Update 1.8 software features a completely new code base for all Blackmagic digital film cameras so provides a foundation for new features. This update supports the original wide dynamic range 2.5K Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K.

This all new code base also improves performance and includes a new modern user interface similar in design to the new URSA camera announced at NAB. This new user interface is included in all models of cameras available from Blackmagic Design, allowing a nice clean fresh look.

Blackmagic Camera 1.8 adds compressed RAW DNG support for the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K model, and this allows RAW recording in real time so all sensor data can be captured allowing more range and much higher image quality when doing post production and color grading. DaVinci Resolve 11, also available today, fully supports RAW grading and rendering to final output direct from the RAW camera original files. This means customers get incredible first generation masters, with a solution that edits RAW files as easily and as responsively as a normal video file.

New features in this update include enhanced lens control support for EF lens mount cameras such as the original Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K models. This means customers can now get auto focus when pushing the focus button on active EF based lenses and the cameras will mathematically analyze the center of the image and optimize the focus for maximum sharpness.

This is important with high resolution 4K cameras where images are so sharp that accurate focus is critical for the best results. Because this update uses the focus button for auto focus, the focus peaking feature is now enabled by double pressing the focus button.

This release also improves the focus peaking display allowing incredibly accurate and super sharp manual focus, critical when using cine lenses. The focus peaking is now green in color so it’s much easer to see, and the filters generating the edge peaking have been optimized allowing for better detection and display for maximum sharpness. In addition, the iris control has been changed, due to customer request, to hold its setting between record and playback.

This new Blackmagic Camera 1.8 also includes major improvements for the original Blackmagic Cinema Camera models including improved audio performance and a completely rewritten new higher quality de-bayer processor. This new de-bayer means when customers record to normal video files such as ProRes or DNxHD they will get sharper and cleaner looking images. This new de-bayer processing features algorithms that have been incorporated from DaVinci Resolve, which means that Blackmagic camera customers get the benefit of DaVinci Resolve’s research and development in image processing and its partnership with major Hollywood studios.

Other benefits for the original Blackmagic Cinema Camera includes enhancements to the cameras dynamic range when shooting at 1600 ISO. This means, with this new software update, customers will get even more dynamic range and image quality, free of charge, even if they purchased their camera 2 years ago.

Improvements for the Pocket Cinema Camera are also included in this update, including the modern updated interface, new focus peaking and improved de-bayer quality, plus additional active MFT lens support for lenses including Sigma and Lumix.

‘We have been working very hard to incorporate camera feature requests that customers have been sending us’ said Grant Petty CEO Blackmagic Design ‘There are major changes and improvements in this update and we are very excited to see the wonderful creative work done with the benefit of this software. Of course, we are working very hard on more features we want to add into our cameras and you will see more and more of what we have been working on in updates that will be release over the upcoming months.’

I’ve decided that since there is so much cool new stuff to see at NAB, the best way to get the most bang for my buck on coverage is to make highlight reels of my favorite attractions. So that’s what I’m doing. Here is the first highlight reel, featuring products like the Blackmagic 4K Production Camera, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, the Atomos Samurai Blade ProRes & DNxHD field recorder, and the new Cooke 2X Anamorphic Prime Lens.

Check out the new mini Panasonic HX-A100 video camera. It looks pretty sweet. Depending on the price, I think I’d get this over a GoPro. It includes an ear clip so you can wear it without a helmet, or strapping a mount to your head. I like that.

Frame from a BlackMagic Cinema Camera by cinematographer Sebastian Wiegärtner, processed and color-corrected in Adobe Camera RAW by myself.

German cinematographer Sebastian Wiegärtner has posted a link to download a DNG frame from a BlackMagic Cinema Camera. Follow this link to get it. I downloaded the file and opened it in Adobe Camera Raw to play with it, and I have to say that I’m really impressed with the clarity, sharpness, and — most of all — the clean, clean, shadow detail. That alone is making me reconsider waiting to get the BlackMagic Cinema Camera. If I can have a camera with shadows that clean, I may make and exception to my “don’t buy new releases” rule. I still don’t like the fact that it’s Canon EOS mount only, though. I still think that was a mistake. It’s true that the Canon EF mount is the most popular right now, but with Nikon, Panasonic, Sony, and others now fully committed to the cinema game, I think Micro 4/3 would have been a better choice in order to keep all the lens options open.

While roaming the NAB Show floor with my Panasonic AF100, I stopped to interview Dan May of Blackmagic Design, who talks about their new Blackmagic Cinema Camera (Canon EF mount only), which can record in RAW at a resolution of up to 2.5K. It is the first camera I’ve seen to feature a Thunderbolt out port for recording in highest resolution. This tells me that we can expect a lot more Thunderbolt accessories from Blackmagic in the near future. Personally, I find it unfortunate that Blackmagic has chosen to release the camera in EF mount only. I would think that Micro 4/3 would have been a much better choice considering it is a much more versatile mount. What do you think?